A: "Treasure" was a puzzle by Dr. Crypton (Paul Hoffman) released
simultaneously in 1984 as a book, a videotape and a laserdisk. The book
and video versions include a number of mysterious pictures and images
connected by a loose plot involving the theft of a golden horse. The
1-kilo golden horse itself was buried, and the mysterious images were
supposed to give instructions on how to find it. The lucky winners would
get the golden horse and $500,000. The clues were interesting and
obscure; it was impossible to tell which of the puzzles were relevant to
the solution and which weren't. Enough of them were sort of solvable to
give people hope that they were on the right track. For example, some
clues written on an umbrella gave the birth and death years of Mary, Queen
of Scots; and a chess game turned out to be identifiable as Anderssen vs.
Kieseritzky, the "Shower of Gold" game. Evidently neither of these
observations was relevant to the solution in the end.

It was alleged that during the production of the video enough people
were let in on the secret that the location had to be changed... but
that very little of the puzzle was changed to reflect the new location.

Nobody solved the puzzle in time -- i.e. by midnight of 26 May 1989.
The horse was dug up by the promoters and the prize donated to a charity:
Big Brothers and Sisters of America. However, the promoters and Dr.
Crypton refused to make the solution public. Seven months later two
men, Nick Boone and Anthony Castaneda, went to Tennessee Pass in Colorado
and dug up a vial with congratulations inside. They wrote a description
of their thought processes that left other frustrated treasure-seekers
suspicious and annoyed: their "solution" appeared to be motivated very
little by anything in the puzzle itself, so that it seemed apparent to
many that they were virtually guided to that location by the promoters.
This suspicion has not been confirmed or denied.

--Jim Gillogly <uunet!rand.org!James_Gillogly>

The New York Times August 21, 1989, Monday, Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section D; Page 6, Column 1; Financial Desk

HEADLINE: THE MEDIA BUSINESS; FAILED HUNT MAY END TREASURE BOOKS AND
VIDEOS

BODY: Four years ago, Richard Baker of Gatlinburg, Tenn., set out on a
treasure hunt based on a puzzle that had promised to bring the winner
$500,000 and a miniature golden horse.

Mr. Baker crisscrossed the country, from Meridian, Miss., to Santa Claus,
Ind., working full time on the puzzle and taking odd jobs.

The contest ended on May 26. And Mr. Baker, despite his efforts, was
$4,000 poorer. He was not alone. Tens of thousands of people bought
the clues to the puzzle, which were included in a book and a video,
both called Treasure. Many also spent hundreds and thousands of
dollars searching for the horse.

No One Wins the Prize

But the contest had gone awry. No one was able to solve the puzzle and
collect the prize.

Over the last two months, treasure hunters in Minnesota, Michigan and
elsewhere said they had complained to their state attorneys general,
contending that the contest could not be solved.

Publishing executives said the complaints could dampen sales of future
treasure-hunt books and videos.

The golden horse could very well kill the entire phenomenon, said
Jim Williams, the editor of Treasure magazine.

The treasure hunt promotions peaked with two best sellers published in
the early 1980's, Masquerade, by Kit Williams, which offered $35,000
to the finder of a golden hare, and Who Killed the Robins Family
by Bill Adler and Thomas Chastain, which offered $10,000 to the reader
who submitted the best answer to their puzzle. Both books sold more than
a million copies each.

'It Only Worked Once'

John Baker, editor of Publisher's Weekly, said there are no industry
figures, but none of the 10 or so treasure books and videos since 1982
have matched the success of the first two.

The idea worked well, but it only worked once, said Lawrence Hughes,
chairman of the Hearst Trade Book Group Treasure was conceived in
1982 when Sheldon Renan, a Los Angeles film maker, teamed up with Paul
Hoffman, also known as Dr. Crypton, an editor at Discover magazine and
a puzzle writer, to write and film a story about a young girl's quest
to find a horse named Treasure.

A series of clues were hidden in the story that pointed to a specific
site in the United States. There, a golden horse worth more than $25,000
was buried, along with a key to a safe deposit box containing an annuity
worth $500,000.

The Rights Are Sold

In 1983, Mr. Renan and Mr. Hoffman sold the rights to the book and video
to Barry Grieff, a former record company executive, who raised $3.5
million and formed a New York video production company, Intravision Inc.,
to market the contest. Intravision then contracted with Warner Books
and Vestron Inc. to distribute the book and the video.

D. L. Blair, a New York sales promotion agency that frequently oversees
sweepstakes, was hired to insure its fairness.

Thomas J. Conlon, president of D. L. Blair, said his company acted as
referee on the condition that it oversee the burial and check the puzzle
to insure that it could be solved. Mr. Conlon also demanded that, if no
one found the treasure, it would be donated to charity.

With that agreement made, Mr. Renan and Mr. Conlon buried the horse,
and they, along with Mr. Hoffman, remain the only people who know its
exact location.

Sales Trail Off

In the first two years, about 80,000 copies of the book were sold,
Mr. Grieff said. And Mr. Renan said about 12,000 videos were sold.

But sales of the book and video began to trail off. By 1986, Intravision
was $600,000 in debt, and Mr. Grieff sold his interest to Lawrence De-Mann,
a New York physician.

Warner Books and Vestron said that by 1987 they had stopped distributing
the book and video because of low orders and had ended their involvement
with the project.

Still, treasure hunters continued to search even as the contest neared
its scheduled end on May 26.

Hundreds of letters appeared at Intravision's office, Dr. De-Mann
said. People would send in videotapes of themselves singing or pictured
in front of rocks which they said contained the horse, he said.

'Some Mystical Solution'

Many treasure hunters seemed to believe that there is some mystical
solution, Mr. Conlon said. One insisted that the horse was a cloud
formation over Wyoming.

After the contest ended, the $500,000 was given to the Big Brothers/Big
Sisters of America. But the horse has remained buried because, Mr. Conlon
said, he has not yet had time to retrieve it.

Although D. L. Blair said the puzzle could be solved with the clues in
the book and video, many treasure hunters demanded proof, as well as
the solution to the puzzle.

Jane Burnett of St. Paul, for instance, filed a complaint with her state
Attorney General's office, demanding that the sponsors prove that the
horse was actually buried.

'Lot of Angry People'

In addition, some treasure hunters wanted reimbursement of the money they
spent hunting. For example, Tony Casteneda, a lawyer in Los Angeles,
and James Mosier, an electrician in Brainerd, Minn., each said they
spent more than $10,000.

There are a lot of angry people, said another treasure hunter,
Deborah Holmes of Monroeville, Pa.

Officials in the Minnesota Attorney General's office declined to comment
on the case, but said that in general sponsors of such a puzzle could
be required to prove the validity of the contest and even reveal the
solution if there was evidence of fraud. Similar regulations apply in
New York and other states.

Mr. Conlon, Mr. Renan and Mr. Hoffman all said they would not release
the solution because the contest rules did not require them to do so.

In the meantime, several treasure hunters said they would still continue
searching for the prize.

GRAPHIC: photo of $25,000 golden horse

--

The New York Times November 30, 1989, Thursday, Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section D; Page 19, Column 2; Financial Desk

HEADLINE: Site of Golden Horse Is No Longer a Puzzle

BYLINE: By ELEANOR BLAU

BODY:
The mystery of the golden horse has been solved.

Succeeding after tens of thousands had failed during a six-year search
for a $25,000 horse statuette and a $500,000 prize, an F.B.I. agent and
a deputy prosecutor discovered that the little horse had been buried
in Tennessee Pass, 10,424 feet above sea level, along the Continental
Divide in Colorado. The treasure hunt was a commercial venture marketed
by Intravision Inc., a New York video production company, that sold
both video and book versions of Treasure: In Search of the Golden
Horse, providing arcane clues to the site. The contest was overseen by
D. L. Blair, the sales promotion company, which helped to bury the horse.

Nothing but Satisfaction

The statuette was no longer there, though, when puzzle solvers
arrived. The contest ended May 26 with the site undiscovered. So
the prize was awarded to a Philadelphia-based charity, the Big
Brothers/Big Sisters of America. The finders, in the end, get nothing
but satisfaction.

When the contest ended, the site was not disclosed. That rankled Nick
Boone, 45 years old, who has been an agent at the Federal Bureau
of Investigation for 18 years, and Anthony Castaneda, 44, a deputy
district attorney in Los Angeles for 16 years.

A lot of people in the United States had worked a long time,
Mr. Castaneda said yesterday, emphasizing that they had a right to know
where the horse was. Indeed, the lack of disclosure had caused many to
protest the contest and even to doubt that the horse had really been
buried. So the two men kept up their search, joining forces last July
after finding each other through a puzzle solvers' grapevine.

--

Here is their description:

CAPT. NEMO, THE GOLD HORSE & ME

The search for the Golden Horse ended on May 26, 1989, five years from
its beginning in 1984. I should have been happy. After all, I would be
saving a great deal of time and money - but I wasnt. A feeling of gloom
persisted - a feeling of something wrong.

Two months after the contest closed, fate took a hand and I met another
treasure seeker, Captain Nemo (not his real name, but it must suffice
for this story).

We had many similarities - age, job, drive - but nothing compared to
your insatiable desire to know. "Where had the Golden Horse been
buried? How close had we been to finding it?".

It was clear that finding the site of the Golden Horse was a passion
with Captain Nemo. He was a man who would not accept defeat. Together,
we moved forward.

THE ADVENTURE

On Thursday, November 2, 1989, the telephone rang. It was my friend
Captain Nemo. He had unlocked the final part of the Rabbit Card clue in
the puzzle known as "Treasure; Search of the Golden Horse." This
difficult part of the puzzle had been confounding thousands of treasure
seekers for the last five years.

Midnight of the next day found us on the "red-eye" out of Los Angeles
heading for Tennessee Pass. Tennessee Pass rises 10,424 feet above sea
level and is intersected by Route 24 on the Continental Divide in
central Colorado.

As we stood at Tennessee Pass, we were awed by the majestic sight of
snow-capped mountains, but we soon found its high altitude and freezing
temperatures made it very difficult to dig for buried treasure and
breathe at the same time.

A large monument, and a nearby smaller one, immediately attracted our
attention. The larger one was a commemoration of the 990 fallen
comrades of the 40th Mountain Division of WW II fame - the smaller one
a dedication to the 99th Battalion of the same division. An aura of
sacredness surrounded the area.

With some trepidation, we inspected both monuments, top and bottom. We
found nothing! In our hand we held the puzzles final map, which at
first appeared to be a confusing abstract drawing. Surrounded by trees,
we now suspected something we had earlier seen as a possibility., that
the pattern of lines and arrows on the map represented tall, thin trees
around an unusual misshapen one. We walked into the forest looking for
such a tree and searched for four or five hours, but found nothing. We
succeeded only in exhausting ourselves., having done a great deal of
hiking. Tomorrow was another day so we drove back to the hotel.

The next day, revived, we again inspected the smaller monument . This
time we brushed away handfuls of snow from the base of the back side.
An inscription met our eyes - "11 June 1980." For five years we had
been staring at that date on Amandas fathers gravestone, wondering
whether or not it was a clue. Finally, we knew its significance: it
stood for itself. We now knew that we were following the puzzles
command, "To find your Treasure you must first find your fathers
grave."

At a heading of 150 degrees, we walked back into the forest for 100
steps. All the trees of the forest were straight and thin - all except
one. This solitary tree was thick, wide, and its branches formed a kind
of wooden scarecrow as if it had been placed there for the sole purpose
of guarding the ground around it. This tree perfectly matched the one
shown on the map.

Interpreting the map as a perspective drawing, we projected a spot for
the "x" and began to dig a hole near the unusual tree. There were large
rocks everywhere. We decided on a digging plan that required using a
pick to form a channel around the rocks, which we removed by hand.
After much digging, we found nothing.

Five feet away from he first hole and closer to the wide, thick, tree
we dug a second hole. Assuming the roles of geologists and forensic
scientists we analysed everything, even trying to draw conclusions from
the multi-coloured dirt. We found pieces of freshly cut roots and voids
between the rocks, telling us that someone had recently dug there.
Again we found nothing. It was extremely cold, late and we had a plane
to catch, so we filled in he hole with dirt and rocks and left. Unknown
to us, we had been approximately 18 inches from the exact spot where
the Golden Horse had been buried for five years.

Once home, we analysed the pictures we had taken and saw our mistake.
Apparently, the map was not drawn in true perspective, but appeared to
be a camera reproduced on paper. We decided to go back, this time with
a Polaroid camera.

NOVEMBER 18, 1989

We left Los Angeles at 6:30 a.m. on November 18, 1989, arriving at the
site 8 hours later. Although it was about 20 degrees with snow on the
ground, we at least were not in the middle of a blizzard and the
weather was holding.

We again walked into the forest. Exactly 238 1/2 feet from the smaller
monument, we marked a new spot and began to dig. The top layer of
ground was now extremely hard, almost frozen. We picked our way through
and quickly discovered the same voids between the rocks as in the
second hole of two weeks before. We wondered, "Could the promoters
recovery team have dug a hole in error and the corrected themselves?"

As we dug, we came across a small piece of fabric and some smaller
pieces of red plastic. Our excitement increased forgetting for the
moment that the Golden Horse was no longer buried in the ground. About
2 1/2 feet down, we struck something that was neither dirt nor rock. It
had a foreign sound that we could not identify. We continued removing
dirt and found at the bottom of the hole the object that was very dark,
almost black. It looked and felt like rubber.

While investigating this rubber-like object further we inadvertently
overturned a 9 inch cylindrical fire-red plastic vial. Captain Nemo
reached for it. The words "Open Me First" were visible through the
translucent plastic and were written in calligraphy on a parchment
inside. The vial was broken at one of the ends and a larger piece of
rolled up parchment was sticking out from there. It was damp and
appeared to have been welded together by the elements of nature. We
couldnt pull the parchment out without tearing it, so we put it aside
temporarily. We looked up anxiously, almost involuntarily, to see if
anyone saw us unearth our find, before realising that the real treasure
had already been removed.

Later, returning to the black rubber-like object, we removed the dirt.
To our surprise, it was the bottom of a rectangular wooden box. We
realised that this had been the box that had housed the Golden Horse.
Five years of weathering had given the wood its dark, rubbery
appearance. All that remained of the box now was its bottom and two
sides.

We took it out. The bottom was 3/4 inch plywood, measuring 14 1/4 by 15
inches. The sides were 6 by 13 and 6 by 15 inches respectively. All the
wood was caked in dirt. Later examination would reveal that one side of
the pieces was labelled "TREASURE," but all that was visible now was a
faint "A."

We turned back to the hole and found additional pieces of fabric. These
were later identified as part of the plaid jacket in which the box had
been wrapped by Sheldon Renan, the writer of "Treasure."

Later, back at the hotel, Captain Nemo, working like a surgeon and
utilising makeshift tools, was able to pull the parchment from the
vial. It read "Congratulations" and revealed to us a secret code
number, 165-69 INF, and a special phone number belonging to the D.L.
Blair Corporation, the contest referee. Our five year search was over!

THE SOLUTION TO THE BOOK

The cornerstone of the puzzle was in the realm of ciphers. Without
following this approach there could be no solution. It was also
necessary to understand that most of the story was fairytale, allegory
and misdirection.

In 1980, Kit Williams authored the artistic and elegant English puzzle
"Masquerade." "Treasure" was similar to "Masquerade" in that there was
a natural tendency for treasure seekers to quickly convince themselves
that they had arrived at a solution to the puzzle and then continue to
mold and fit the facts of the story to "their" solution.

"Treasure" was a puzzle of ciphers. Luckily, this concept came to me
early in the contest, and I devoted a great deal of time to ciphers. I
asked myself, "How would treasure seekers have known that this was a
puzzle of ciphers?" In general, the following are some of the insights
that came to us indicating ciphers were involved.

One of the clues illustrated in the chapter "Road" was the license
plate of a mustang ("MLGGS/VER"). it practically cried out "I am
ciphertext."

The video and laser disk had some obvious clues. At the end of the
story was the message:

V E E B N T F A D

I W R E O A R I.

This is a classic rail fence cipher. I deciphered it by simply reading
the first letter top row, first letter bottom row, second letter top
row, and so on. I formed a break after each word and the message became
"VIEWER BE NOT AFRAID."

Also in the video, the main character, Amanda, picked up a book titled
Fort Michael Meade. For Meade houses the headquarters of the National
Security Agency - the highly classified branch of the government that
intercepts and analyses the worlds cryptography.

I also learned that Dr. Crypton frequently wrote about ciphers. That
convinced me that he used ciphers in this puzzle and that they were
highly important.

Later Captain Nemo confided to me that his early belief that ciphers
were critical to the solution.

A CIPHER DEFINED

A cipher is a letter, number or symbol that stands for another letter.
There are two ways to solve ciphers. One by substitution and the other
by transposition.

For example, the cipher "SGBBX" could be deciphered by substituting the
letters in the bottom row (the cipher letters or cipher alphabet) of
Figure 1 for the corresponding letters in the top row (the plaintext
letters). The message "HELLO," which is called the plaintext would
result. This is a classic example of a cipher solved by substitution.

Figure 1

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

L K J H G F D S A M N B V C X Z P O I U Y T R E W Q

Deciphering by transposition, the letters of the ciphered message are
simply transposed to obtain plaintext message. For example, the cipher
"LLOHE" spells "HELLO" be reordering the letters around.

THE ATBASH CIPHER

The license plate (MLGGS/VCER) is an Atbash cipher, a reverse
substitution. The sentence on page 33 of "Treasure" - "Soon she began
to feel awash in a babel of crowds" - was a very subtle hint to the
ciphers solution. On pages 77-78 of The Codebreakers, the monumental
treatise on ciphers, was the reference to the time of Babel (Babylon)
and the Atbash cipher.

To solve the license plate cipher, each letter of "MLGGS/VCER" was
matched on the bottom line of Figure 2 to the corresponding letter
selected on the top line. For example, "M" is located on the bottom
line and "N" is therefore selected. "L" becomes "O"; "G" becomes "T";
and so on.

Figure 2

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Z Y X W V U T S R Q P O N M L K J I H G F E D C B A

"MLGGS/VCER" deciphers to "NOT THE XVI", or "NOT THE 16th" - a perfect
illustration of the layered effect of the puzzle. "NOT THE 16th" is the
first layer, but what did it mean? Did it mean the 16th President of
the United States, or the 16th chapter of "Treasure," or perhaps a 16th
paragraph or a 16th word? We found the correct meaning of "NOT THE
16th" only after solving the Rabbit Card.

THE BACON CIPHER

The Bacon Cipher, named after Sir Francis Bacon, is a bilateral
substitution cipher where each letter of the alphabet is given a
different combination of two symbols in groups of five. Bacon used "a"
and "b" for the symbols. For example, aaaaa = A aaaab = B, aaaba = C,
and so forth.

In the chapter "River," Amanda saw "Treasure running along the
shore...," but a pig, not a horse, was pictured on the river bank. It
was a substitution of something completely out of place that signalled
a clue. The pig was running toward a tight group of ten trees - five
short and five tall. Together, they formed a Bacon Cipher. Were we
supposed to associate pig with bacon and thereby come up with the Bacon
Cipher?

Was Dr. Crypton displaying a sense of humour as he had with the
"musical notes" on page 56? These notes were a substitution cipher that
read "Dr. C Was Here" (Secret Writing by Henry Lysinf, page 42). Pretty
funny? Im still laughing.

We looked at Bacons full substitution alphabet, and began by assigning
"a" to the small trees ("b" to the tall trees) and "reading" the trees
left to right and also from right to left. We then assigned the letter
"b" to the small trees and proceeded in the same manner.

The above combinations gave us three possible solutions "TN" or "OV" or
"GK."

Since the solutions to the puzzle seemed to come in layers, we waited
to choose among the three possibilities until after solving the Rabbit
Card.

THE RABBIT CARD

The Rabbit handed Amanda a card, but said "...I will mask it" (an
anagram of Kit Williams). On the card is a message masked in a master
scheme to deceive and eliminate the timid. We kept coming back to it
many times. The solution evaded us.

From the message that read in part "your horse will be found by four
things, all concealed and lettered," we assumed that four words of four
sets of letters should be placed on the first line of the card
containing the numbers and four symbols. The four symbols (seven
circles, one square, six diamonds, and two triangles) indicated the
length of each of the words or sets of letters. The first line was
reordered, according to the numbers, on the second line.

The Rabbit Card was a combination of four separately solved clues. Clue

1 was to be deciphered; Clue #2 to be left unaltered; Clue #3 to be

interpreted; and Clue #4 to be translated.

CLUE #1: DECIPHER THE FIRST

Mary Queen of Scots was a cryptographer whose cipher system was used in
the book. The controversial Scottish queen, born in 1542, was the
cousin of Queen Elizabeth I of England, who considered her a threat to
the throne and had here executed in 1587.

Mary used ciphers extensively to elude Queen Elizabeths spies,
substituting her own symbols for the letters of the alphabet.

There were two ways of connecting Marys importance to the solution. I
found the easier clue that Mary Queen of Scots and her cipher alphabet
were important. Her birth and death dates were written on the umbrella
in the chapter "Party." I looked at biographies of her life. When I
read that she used ciphers, I knew that she and her ciphers were
central to the puzzle.

Captain Nemo found the more difficult clue. The globe illustrated on
page 42 contains a collage of many different maps and locations
superimposed one over another. Captain Nemo painstakingly inspected and
identified every location on the globe, with the sole exception of one
piece bearing the letters "EVEN."

Consulting road maps as well as geographical and place name dictionary
he finally determined that "EVEN" was the only non-American location on
the globe. "EVEN" was part of Scotlands "LOCH LEVEN." Mary Queen of
Scots had been imprisoned on an island in Loch Leven.

We therefore, strongly suspected that Marys cipher symbols were hidden
in the book. For weeks, we looked for these and nightly discussed the
various possibilities. We finally found the following seven.

1. The books artist, Podevin, signed his name in the lower right hand
corner of the drawing on the dedication page. Marys symbol for "F"
(resembling a base clef without dots) was in the place where the "D" in
Podevin should have been.

2. Either page 13 or 14 is missing. The "H" on the dresser on the page
after 12 was Marys symbol for "E."

3. Marys "beta" symbol in the upper left hand corner of page 17 stood
for the letter "S."

4. A plus sign (instead of the Roman numeral "X") on the Tarot card on
page 24 stood for the letter "T."

5. The only constellation that is out of place (i.e. incorrect) on page
40 is the one on the left side with the two "Xs." These two "Xs"
(actually Greek chis) were Marys symbols for "Os."

6. The earring on page 68 (similar to an "S" but actually a delta) was
her symbol for "N."

The Rabbit Cards first command was "Decipher the first." We deciphered
Marys hidden symbols, formed a word "FESTOON," and placed it into the
spaces occupied by the circles in the Rabbit Card.

For an illustration of how we placed "FESTOON" in the Rabbit Card, see
Figure 4.

Figure 4

F E S T O O N

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

1 13 7 14 6 8 16 2 15 9 5 3 12 10 4 11

Following the Rabbit Cards command "Reorder them anew," we placed each
letter of the word "Festoon," in its proper numerical order, in the
second row. We now had what you see in figure 5.

Figure 5

F E S T O O N

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

1 13 7 14 6 8 16 2 15 9 5 3 12 10 4 11

F N O E O S T

There was a possible first word of "FIND" in the second line, but we
were unable to make sense of the rest of the letters.

CLUE #2: LEAVE THE SECOND UNALTERED

The outline of the state of Idaho was cut from page 36. We saw the
letter "J" at the middle left of this outline. The reproduced piece of
Idaho was on page 45. at the middle of this outline, what appeared to
be the letter "T" was actually the top half of the "J" on page 36.

Following the command "Leave the second unaltered," we placed the
unaltered "J" into the Rabbit Card in the space occupied by the square.
The first and second lines of the Rabbit Card now read as you can see
in Figure 6.

Figure 6

F E S T O O N J

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

1 13 7 14 6 8 16 2 15 9 5 3 12 10 4 11

F N O J E O S T

CLUE #4: TRANSLATE THE FOURTH

Years ago, I noticed how two pieces of a "water splash" on pages 10 and
50 fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Captain Nemo discovered that when
the piece on page 50 was superimposed over the piece on page 10, and
the two were held up to the light, a grille cipher could be seen. He
remembered the quote "On its grille, leading the way, was the figure of
a running horse."

Four pieces of green glass outlined the words "He did it himself." We
considered this phrase as being either the third or forth part of the
Rabbit Card. If it was to be interpreted it could have been many
things. If translated, then Latin was the clear choice.

Amanda in the chapter "Forest," picked up a book that was described as
being "written in the tongue of ancient Rome," and she "copied only two
short words." "He did it himself" in Latin translated to "Ipse Fecit."

Having only two spaces, we placed the abbreviation "IF" in the spaces
occupied by the two triangles. The first and second lines of the Rabbit
Card now resulted in Figure 7.

Figure 7

F E S T O O N J I F

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

1 13 7 14 6 8 16 2 15 9 5 3 12 10 4 11

F N O J F E I O S T

We were still not able, however, to make sense of the second line.

Captain Nemo and I started discussing the possibility of applying
polyalphabetic ciphers. These ciphers used multi-alphabets instead of
just one alphabet. A polyalphabetic cipher uses a keyword along with a
26 by 26 matrix (Figure 8), which consists of 26 alphabets.

Long before the contest started, I had knowledge of keywords and
polyalphabetic ciphers. When I read the phrase on page 74, "The Map Is
The Key In More Ways Than One," the association between keywords and
cipher text literally jumped out at me. I immediately thought that
"Map" was the keyword that would solve the Rabbit Card. I tried,
however, to use various cipher texts but came up with nothing.

Later, Captain Nemo told me that he too thought of "Map" as a keyword,
but he had not been able to find the right ciphertext.

Now, we thought, "Could the second line, which had been eluding us so
far, be ciphertext instead of spelling out a message?"

Following this thought of using "map" as the keyword, we ran the ten
letters of the second line backwards through the Vigenere matrix (The
Codebreakers page 149(, which produced Figure 9.

Figure 9

T _ Y _ O U T E T _ O D _ _ E _

Trying to form a message out of the letters, we tried various letter
combinations. When we added an "R" after the first "T", and an "R"
after the "Y" we produced two words, "TRY" and "ROUTE."

Running "Rs" backwards through the matrix added two new letters in the
two lines of the Rabbit Card (See figure 10).

Figure 10

F E S T O O N J R D I F

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

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F R N D O J F E I O S T

Now having three full parts of the first line of the Rabbit Card, we
were looking for a six letter word ending in "RD." The Rabbit Cards
command was to interpret something to get this word.

CLUE #3: INTERPRET THE THIRD

Our search for more clues continued. The letter at the top of the
stairs on page 53 attracted our attention. It was either an "N" or a
"Z." We discussed this numerous times. Our preferred choice was a "Z"
because the legs of the letter appeared to be too slanted and uneven
for a "N." Could a "Z" somehow be interpreted into a six lettered
word?

On November 2, my telephone rang. It was Captain Nemo. He had broken
the Rabbit Card by finding the third word, reordering it, and running
it through the matrix. Captain Nemo told me that he had kept the third
word "Izzard," on a piece of paper in his pocket for an entire day,
being too nervous to try it out in the Rabbit Card. "Izzard" was
another way of saying "Z." Captain Nemo had remembered a slang
expression of his grandmother, "From A to izzard."

When he finally made himself try the third word, the result was the
completed lines of the Rabbit Card, which are depicted in Figure 11.

Figure 11

F E S T O O N J I Z Z A R D I F

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F R N D O J F E I I O S A Z T Z

Then he ran the completed second line through the matrix. He had the
answer that none of the thousands of treasure seekers had discovered.
The message that leaped out at him was "TRY ROUTE TWO DOZEN."

Next, Captain Nemo interpreted "Try Route Two Dozen" to mean "Try Route
24." After consulting a United States road map, he found interstate
Route 24, a route that is somewhat reminiscent of the legendary Route
66. Route 24 begins near Detroit, Michigan, winds its way down and cuts
across the United States, ending near Vail, Colorado.

Now the exact location on Route 24 had to be found. He started tracing
the route and searching for clues to fit the ones that we had. Suddenly
he spotted the words "Tennessee Pass" in Colorado.

Number 16 leaped to his mind - Tennessee was the 16th state admitted
into the Union. However, our clue said, "Not the 16th."

The Bacon Cipher, however, was interpreted to be "TN" or "OV" or "GK,"
Captain Nemo chose "TN," which was the abbreviation for Tennessee. If
it wasnt the state of Tennessee, but Tennessee was still part of the
solution, then it had to be Tennessee Pass - the only mention of
"Tennessee" on Route 24.

So we began our odyssey to Tennessee Pass. We already ad determined the
number of steps by counting the stairs on the staircases (including the
spiral staircase on page 43) in the books illustrations. We first found
the 150 degree heading in the movie version, but that solution is
another story. How it surfaces in the book is something other treasure
seekers might like to determine for themselves, as one last challenge.

EPILOGUE

The adventure of Captain Nemo and me has now been written. Our solution
to the puzzle has been revealed. So, where do we go from here? I asked
Captain Nemo that very question. He said, "Another Puzzle, no matter
what!"

Owner: "70.187.170.60" Last edited on August 7, 2005 6:27 pm by "70.187.170.60"